Kumasi, Oct. 17, GNA - Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate of the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has stressed the importance of human resource development, which he said made the injection of capital into education vital. Speaking to students in Kumasi last Wednesday, Dr Bawumia said the NPP under Akufo-Addo was committed to the promised free Senior High School education, provision of incentives for teachers. In addition he said there would be free care for pregnant women till after delivery, health care for every Ghanaian under 18 years and double the number of police personnel from the current 25,000 to 50,000 by 2014.

He said economic expansion means creating more skilled jobs for school leavers, who would also be highly paid. He said government had achieved some successes in job creation and mentioned the National Youth Employment Policy for instance. Dr Bawumia said 43 years after independence, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the country was less than four billion dollars but seven years after when the NPP took over, it had increased the figure to 16 billion dollars.

"We need to move away from the Guggisberg economy we inherited to a more industrialized economy", he noted. Dr Bawumia said there had been an increase in the private sector credit from 384 million dollars in 2000 to 3.8 billion dollars in 2008. This, he said, was achieved through industrialisation strategy to increase production of industrialized goods and value addition. He rated Ghana's stock market as at last year as the best performing stock market in the world.

Mr John Boadu, National Youth Organizer of the NPP, said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) collapsed industries, which in turn demoralized the youth.

He added government was designing a programme that would address the unemployment situation. 17 Oct. 08